Port of saints

by William S. Burroughs

This novel is a reworking and expansion of The Wild Boys (1969), which derived from Naked Lunch (1959), which derived from Junky. The book begins with bits of a story about a young man lost at sea, bits of which are repeated but not resolved later. Interspersed with these fragments are pieces of two parallel stories: one of a sexual encounter between two teenaged boys (one of whom is apparently a fantasy-projection of Burroughs as a boy) and another made up of murky glimpses of, Audrey the ice boy. The rest of the book is a collage of sex scenes between Burroughss various fictional alter egos.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?